Reincarnation
by kyuuketsuneko
Summary: Up in Heaven, the Merciful Goddess muses on the passing of her primary source of entertainment. This acts a bit like an epilogue to the Saiyuki series. Oneshot.
1. Reincarnation

**Title**: Reincarnation

**Summary**: Up in Heaven, the Merciful Goddess muses on the passing of her primary source of entertainment. This acts a bit like an epilogue to the Saiyuki series. Oneshot.

(Hopefully Minekura-sensei doesn't do anything in canon that will render this fic obsolete.)

**Disclaimer**: Saiyuki belongs to Minekura Kazuya and respective animators.

~X~

When the three souls re-entered the cycle of reincarnation, the Merciful Goddess couldn't help but muse at absurdity and mundaneness of it all.

Konzen, or rather, Sanzo, passed away peacefully from liver failure. He left no children, and no successor. It took a great deal of head-scratching and self-important hissing between various monks before a new Sanzo was named. Only the Gods and Sanzo will ever know if his secularity extended to all aspects of his lifestyle, though it was hotly debated by some his companions.

In a sense, the answer was so like Konzen that Kanzeon Bosatsu couldn't help but chuckle.

Goku was present at his bedside the entire time, never leaving his vigilance – not even to eat nor drink nor sleep. He made up for this deprivation over the next few weeks, devouring all the temple's food with gusto. When Gojyo, the longest living of the three mortals, was laid to rest, he chose to enter a deep sleep – one that he would awaken from without his earlier memories, just in time to catch the next reincarnations of his friends.

Gojyo, in an unsurprising surprise, had settled down with a single woman – marriage, children and all. At first glance, she seemed like a mousy, homely woman, but further inspection would note the sparkling amethyst eyes that twinkled with mischief under a crown of brown hair so dark it gleamed ebony. As sharp as she was dull, her wit and prickliness were unfamiliar charms for the half-breed who had supposedly sampled all. The juxtaposition between her demure homeliness and fiery temper drew him in further. And, as horrified as he was with the discovery, she finished her charms with her status a school-teacher and part-time librarian, and her thirst for knowledge as great as his for alcohol.

When a certain green-eyed man made some noticeable comparisons, Goku jumped at the chance to tease the kappa endlessly.

Perhaps the journey to the West left him a bit touched in the head?

And finally, Hakkai. Despite being a youkai, his enduring friend out-lived him by half a decade. He did not really settle down, but nor did he roam. By the time of his death, he was in a steady relationship with a boisterous, wild redhead. Unlike his friend, she was fully human. Her eyes were green and not the red of a Child of Taboo, though she was given a lot of grief over the misunderstanding in her youth. As such, her temper made even the great Sanzo quiver in his sandals, and her wildness was so that even Gojyo seemed tame. In fact, had his friends not known better, they might have thought she was the kind of woman Gojyo would have liked.

Hakkai and her never married, despite their lengthy relationship. Perhaps it was out of fear of loss. Perhaps it was homage to the impossibility of marriage for the man in both present and past. Or perhaps it was a show of understanding. Regardless, this prevented them from legally adopting a child.

It certainly didn't stop Gojyo from adopting said children for his friend, then dramatically dumping the pair of siblings (a sour-faced bookworm boy and a tomboy girl with braids) onto the couple. Said sour-faced bookworm was slowly coaxed out of his shell both by his patient (albeit forceful) elder sister and his not-so-patient pseudo-mother.

The girl eventually grew up into a happy marriage.

Twirling her hair half-heartedly, the Goddess tapped the pond once, twice and thrice. The human world was so terribly boring sometimes.

She would have to settle for watching re-runs.

~X~

A/N: Yes, I'm aware that the Merciful Goddess is technically a hermaphrodite, but I felt it would jar the flow of the story by pointing that out.

Side point to anyone waiting on my other fics: DON'T WORRY, THEY'RE NOT DEAD! I've just hit a wall with some of them, and logistical problems in others.


	2. Spoilers & explanations

This isn't actually a chapter, but where you get the 'answers' and 'clarifications'. Only read if you want 'spoilers' to this fic, and an explanation for why I've done what I've done.

One: I believe that Sanzo never and would never break his vow of celibacy. In a sense, I feel that at heart, he's still very devout and pure, though he tries to hide that with a _very_ thick and spikey outer shell. In a sense, you could say that of the four, he's the most emotionally sensitive, and thus he pushes people away the most to prevent himself from getting hurt (cue images of his Master and that old monk I can't remember the name of dying to protect him).

Two: For some reason, I always see Gojyo as the only one who would actually end up in a painfully ordinary relationship. If you think about it, he's probably the most 'ordinary' of the four. One was never named by their parents and probably made a record for youngest-to-earn-title-of-Sanzo. One is a frickin' _sage_. The last is a mass-murderer that butchered not only a thousand demons (in a _single_ night no less), but also a whole village of frightened humans. Next to that, having an incredibly abusive incestuous parent doesn't seem all that… extraordinary. It could and probably does happen in real life. The other three? Not so much.

Three: For the description of his wife, compare that to his three companions. The hair is from Hakkai, the eyes are from Sanzo and the youthfulness is from Goku. She's witty like Hakkai and prickly like Sanzo, but also has her silly moments like Goku. She's homely like Hakkai, but has a fierce temper like all four of them. She's also a school-teacher, which you _have_ to have realised was a throwback to Hakkai's previous occupation, and a librarian – which implies she likes to read, like Sanzo does with his newspapers, and her insatiability is a reference to Goku's unending appetite (for food, in his case).

Four: I figured I should pay my dues to HakkaixGojyo (or vice versa) fans by giving him effectively a 'female-Gojyo of a wife'. She's loud, a party animal and tough. If you recall, one episode (and in the manga), Hakkai mentions that his ideal woman would now be tough, and able to bear him lots of children. Presumably the latter part is spoken in jest, but really, he _does_ effectively want a woman who will be able to stay with him, and outlive him. And given Gojyo's survivability, I think Hakkai would inadvertently be drawn to a woman with similar qualities to his friend. I made her eyes green because of Kanan, and the fact that Hakkai seems to pay quite a bit of attention to people's eyes.

Which brings me to the point of why I made her human: one, I don't think the human public would react well to a youkai, especially one without limiters (I think it would be pointless to make her a youkai only to seal her up again), two, I don't think Hakkai has ever truly forgiven youkai for what they did, three, it gives me an excuse to give her plain-coloured eyes (and not some exotic gold or orange or whatnot), and finally and most importantly, I wanted Hakkai to have a dilemma on the subject of kids (which I shall elaborate on next).

Five: I really don't see Hakkai having any kids, despite the fact that I think he would be good with them. Instead, he probably would make a nice adopted father. I also think it would be cathartic for him to be able to help two orphans grow up happily and continue to live happily – unlike perhaps himself and Kanan Thus, to ensure that he wouldn't have any kids without coming off as impotent, I wanted his partner to be human – hence subjecting them to the dilemma of 'should we have a half-breed child or not'? With Gojyo at his side, I think Hakkai would feel guilty (though Gojyo wouldn't actually have a problem with it) knowing that his child was doomed to a life of discrimination like his friend, and see his friend's suffering reflected on his children. I just don't think he could take that, or would want to subject himself to that, and hence he wouldn't have any blood children.

Six: And then, by opening up the opportunity of letting Hakkai adopt children, I could get him to adopt a mini version of him and Kanan. Through them, he can achieve peace knowing that they grow up and lead happy lives. Hence the final note about the girl being happily married at the end – Kanan finally gets her happy ending.

**A/N:** Good lord, I think my A/N is longer than the actual fic. Forgive me OTL

If I see any reoccurring questions in reviews, I'll add the answer to them up here.


End file.
